2006 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year

Watsonville, CA. (January 16, 2007)—They are almost at opposite ends of their racing careers but they share a common passion for their sport.
The winners of sailing’s highest award for 2006, the Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year differ in age by thirty years, however, watching them compete on the water, well, they seem timeless.
Jud Smith, from Marblehead, Massachusetts turns a youthful 50 this month, while his counterpart nineteen-year-old Paige Railey of Clearwater, Florida hits the ripe old age of 20 this coming May.
The two outstanding athletes were recently named to US SAILING’s highest honor, from a shortlist of nominees determined by the membership panel of noted sailing journalists. The Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Awards recognize outstanding on-the-water achievement and the winners will be honored this coming March at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan.
2006 was an outstanding year for Smith, who scored a victory at the Audi Etchells World Championship in Perth, Australia. A five-time North American champion of the class, the noted sailmaker Smith had been knocking on the door seemingly forever and had previously been a four-time runner up at the Worlds.
Still when he found out that he was named Yachtsman of the Year, Smith was more than taken aback.
“It was a little bit unexpected but it is a culmination of a pretty good year and it is a non-Olympic year and a non-America’s Cup year really,” Smith confided. “All the candidates were excellent choices I was just fortunate that it went my way. I was a little bit surprised. They caught me at a regatta in Florida and I wasn’t racing that day. I was scrambling around trying to get ready and that’s when I heard. So, I was so caught off guard; and I was expecting maybe to hear from a customer, asking where their sails were, or something like that so it was a real surprise. It was out of the blue.”
The veteran sailor had seen more than his share of hard luck with four second place finishes at the Worlds, however, this time out on the final day of racing in the 69-boat fleet, he aced the win with a great start in the seventh race. Sailing in breezes that jumped into the 20’s, Smith was unstoppable and he crossed the finish line first to lead the fleet across the finish line.
“That was it more than anything else because I had been second so many times and close. As much as anything else I remember it being sort a relief with the burden off of me,” Smith explained. “It was something I had been working for a long time and I achieved it. I was so determined to make it happen that at that stage the excitement was over. I really put a lot of effort into it this year and certainly put a great deal of effort into the San Francisco Worlds and came up short. So, I was more determined more than ever to see it through.”
Just a month before winning his first world title, the Marblehead sailor captured his third straight Etchells North American Championship. Once again it came down to the final day of racing and Smith iced the victory with a 2-1 finish. All the veteran sailor had to do to score a win was battle rain, 20-25 knots of breeze with gusts to 35, and a six-foot chop that blistered Buzzard’s Bay in Massachusetts. We don’t want to say it was brutal out on the water but no less than 12 boats in the 46-boat fleet failed to finish because of equipment failures.
Smith’s mastery of the Etchells class this past season also included wins at the Lands’ End Annapolis NOOD Regatta, the Florida State Championship and Acura Miami Race Week. While at the wheel of a Rhodes 19, Smith also notched victories of that class’s National and East Coast Championships. In his spare time, Smith also crewed on the class winners at the Rolex Big Boat Series (Sydney-38 Copernicus), the Lands’ End Chicago NOOD Regatta and the Verve Cup (both on the Farr 40, Inferno).
Not too bad for a guy who turns 50 in less than a week. Still, Smith is very happy to be honored by Rolex and rather reflective what the award means at this point in his career.
“Sooner might have been better [laughter] but it comes at a good time. I have had a very good career sailmaking and it can only help,” Smith believes. “It probably made me extend my career a little bit. One of the things that 50 was in the back of my mind and it has been in the back of mind all the way along. In preparing for these Worlds, the by-product of it is when we were sailing with four as oppose to three, is that I had to lose a bunch of weight. It forced me to get into shape in the biggest aspect of preparing for the Worlds. I wasn’t probably [as] fit or agile, as I was years ago when I started this thing. I really put an effort into those two things and I figured the rest of my sailing was going to hold up fine. I was smarter and sail more intelligently and more under control and do a better job of positioning myself on the racecourse than I ever have. But the part of my game that was weak was that I was probably physically weaker than I should be. I worked on that and I wanted to make my sails better for those conditions. Our sails were better geared for the East Coast where we predominately sailed. Those two things came together and it definitely paid off.”
The son of 1960 5.5 Metre Olympic Gold Medallist David Smith, this past year’s Rolex winner was determined to get in the best shape possible for his run at a world championship.
“April 1st was the drop dead date and it isn’t that I’m a big person but I started jogging and I went from 210 and I did the Mid Winters West last year at about that weight. I cut out the submarine sandwiches, the chips and the ice cream and all that stuff was gone,” Smith explained. “When I had trained for the 1995 America’s Cup with Dennis [Conner] I lost a lot of weight to and I went down from 200 to 170 for the Cup. So I thought if I could do it for him I could do it for myself. I remember that time going cold turkey and cutting out the French fries. So it was just simple diet and exercise and having the determination to stick with it and I got down to 183, which is what I weighed at the Worlds. I would like to get below 180 to allow me to sail with bigger teams and bigger crews. It is a good by-product for someone turning 50-years-old and to get down to the weight I was in my 20’s.”
Hard to believe but the teenage winner of the top Rolex award for women, Paige Railey earned her first nomination in 2002 and remarkably has been short listed for the honor five years in a row. Paige has dominated in the Laser Radial class and fortunately for Railey and American dreams of gold in Beijing, the Laser Radial will make its Olympic debut in 2008 as the chosen equipment for the women’s single-handed event.
After coming close for so many years, Railey was very happy to finally win the Rolex award.
“I was really excited. I was actually in Orlando on a trip with my boyfriend and they called me up and I was really happy about it,” Railey recalled. “ I was pleased to be winning in my own country and since I had been nominated that last couple of years and to finally win it was really exciting. It was special for me because the last few years I was nominated and now to finally to get it is really nice.”
Railey’s most outstanding efforts in 2006 were wins on foreign waters, which also contributed to her being honored last November as the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year 2006. That award recognized her sailing achievements between September 1, 2005, and August 31, 2006.
At Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, France, the race for gold in the 80-boat fleet resulted in a final-race battle between Railey the eventual winner and the defending champ from France, Sophie de Turckheim. Just a few weeks later, at the ISAF World Sailing Games in Neusiedl, Austria, Railey squared off again against the defending title holder and her rival de Turckheim. It was white knuckle time, as a match race for the championship ensued when the final race began, with Railey holding a three-point advantage. de Turckheim rounded the top mark five seconds ahead, however, Railey turned up the heat and turned on the downwind speed to eventually pass the French woman by the time they reached the gate. Railey crossed the finish line seventh in the 68-boat fleet to nail down the championship victory.
However, Railey believes it was her performance and victory at the Good Luck Beijing-2006 Qingdao International Regatta, the first test event in China at the venue of the 2008 Olympic Regatta, that was the key in winning the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Award.
“I believe that they noted my win at the Qingdao International Regatta, the pre-Olympics in China was really concrete for last year,” Railey said. “My races leading up to the event weren’t that good and then I sailed well at the whole event. I didn’t even have to compete in the medaling because I had that many points. So I just went out and sailed it and I did it. I really enjoyed the course. I think it was what people made of it. You could have either been at that regatta and had been really stressed because it was real light. You could be too critical about the wind and the current but pretty much I stayed relaxed. I had a really good time sailing, it was fun and it was warm. So it was nice.”
All along Railey’s main focus has always been on winning an Olympic Gold medal, so right now she is all ready preparing for the USA Team Trials, and winning a place on the American sailing team.
“Pretty much this my main focus is the Trials. It takes a lot of dedication and hard training,” Railey confided. “Pretty much I have to keep pushing until October. I have been training for a couple of years now, so this is just like the homestretch and I hope it works out.”
What has really set both of these athletes apart has been their sustained passion for sailing. No matter how much time they spend on the water they continue to strive for excellence.
“When I started sailing Optis I had a new motivation and that pushes me,” Railey says. “Once I feel that I have accomplished that goal, then I find something new that will push me. So it is a drive inside of me and pretty much, I hate to lose. That’s one of my big drives, I like to win at the events. If I don’t win I go train like crazy so I can win the next event.”
“I get a charge more so than ever for the competition,” Smith confided. “Not necessarily just the sailing but it is an adrenaline rush to go out there and be in the competition and sail in these big fleets. I guess I’m somewhat addicted to that more so than I realized I would be and perhaps even more than when I was younger. I have always had a passion for sailing and never feel like I can get enough. When you’re a kid you have much more time for this sort of thing but now I do more regattas than I use to as a kid. Actually you get a passion for the thing and you get the chance to sail for the enjoyment of it and I have never lost that passion. I’d go sailing everyday if I had the chance.”
Age after all is just a number and it doesn’t matter if you are a teenager from Florida, or a midlife warrior from Massachusetts, the thrill of sailing and sailing fast is still what it is all about.